What privacy?
I found an interesting comparison of new services, Multiply vs. Vox over on Mike Arringtons TechCrunch site. It pretty much summarizes the similarities and differences between Vox and Multiply. The more interesting aspect is the fact that both are aiming at the "we want privacy" crowd. This started me thinking. How private is a blog? Further, how private do you really want a blog? Would I write and blog to have a place to post pictures and "broadcast" my information to just my immediate family? Probably not......this doesn't mean though that many other people wouldn't do this. Further, as soon as I go beyond my immediate circle of family, is it really private? How do you keep one friend for example from telling another friend what he saw on your blog. If said third-party friend doesn't have access, the problems start. I figure this is not a new topic. I can imagine there have been all kinds of variations on this theme in regards to MySpace or whatever other community sites exist. Yet, it still makes me wonder about privacy and the blog. I imagine that no matter how popular your blog gets, unless you're doing it for profit (and by profit I mean to either make money or market yourself, which in turn drives some kind of gain for you), your readership will only grow to a certain size. It still therefore pretty much remains your inner circle and is somewhat private. The size of the internet and the amount of information there almost predetermines how much relevance your blog may have if you don't work on marketing it.
At this point I've not told anyone specifically that I am "blogging". As written in the first post this is more of a brain dump where I write down my thoughts to kind of think out loud. It's also practice so to say but not structured in any regards or meant as a marketing tool. Yet, people have already come across the site and I've been addressed in regards to this blog. I kept it private but now it's gone beyond just my "inner circle" and is technically no longer private at all. I have to add that I leave everything "open" on here and don't put any restrictions on my posts. Long story short, I pretty much want some kind of "growth" in regards to my blog, otherwise I wouldn't write it no matter how much I think it's just for the sake of thinking. I wouldn't make it completely private because it would then be irrelevant to me and I wouldn't use it to share info. Further, is it still really a blog if it's just for a couple of people and more of a closed shop, message board?
It's Monday and I can't dwell upon this too long.....much too much to do today! Here's some thoughts simply for the rest of you to chew on: what is a blog (just like what is Web 2.0)? What role does privacy play in regards to blogs? If you're going to blog, should it be done only for a closed loop of people? What's the point of blogging if it's only for a closed loop of people? And so on............
